A Welsh mum is hundreds of pounds out of pocket after she bought her two children a £15 Christmas balloon each at a Cardiff park - but was actually charged more than £400. Amy Lloyd, from Cwmbran, went to Christmas at Bute Park in the city centre on Tuesday evening with her husband John and their two sons, Jacob and Jorgie.
Inside the park gates was a man selling fairy light balloons. Amy went to buy two of them and got ready to pay £30 for the pair. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
However, she didn’t realise just how much the purchase would actually cost her. After being told that the contactless function on the card machine was not working, she was asked to enter her card and tap in her pin. Without realising, Amy actually agreed to pay £430 after an extra digit was entered before the £30, which is what the balloons should have cost.
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“We offered to pay cash and the man said he would rather we paid by card, which is fine because I guess a lot of places prefer card payments these days,” said Amy. “He then said the contactless wasn’t working and asked me to enter the card instead. But it was all a bit of a rush so I quickly tapped in the pin and that was that.
“The next day the bank messaged my husband to say that £430 had been taken out of our account, so he rang them and they said the money had been paid by card to a company called Fairy Lights Balloons. The website address written on the balloon doesn’t work so I emailed Bute Park themselves and messaged them on social media.”
Amy said that the park’s management have responded to her and clarified that they will refund the £400, providing she can send them a screenshot from her bank statement confirming the payment. However, that isn’t as simple as it would seem as the bank advised Amy and her husband to cancel their card following the incident, meaning she has to wait for a new one to arrive. When it does, it is hoped that Amy and her husband will get their £400 back. “It’s a lot of money, especially at Christmas.” added Amy. “At least we’re hopeful we can get the money back. I’m just worried that this may have happened to others too.”
Organisers of Christmas at Bute Park have told Wales Online that the over charge was down to a simple human error and that a refund of £400 will be made to Amy and her husband.
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